Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 68538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
When I got to the living room, I was very unsurprised to find a Carter already standing in it.
“Hey,” I breathed. “Where’s Boss?”
I mean, priorities.
“He’s sleeping in the sun,” Garrett jerked his chin at me.
I walked over to the sleeping dog and bent down, giving him some cuddles which he didn’t bother to return.
“What has your feathers ruffled?” Garrett questioned.
I stood up and turned before explaining.
He nodded. “Unsurprised, right?”
“Right.” I licked my lips nervously. “The special agent in charge, Jefferson Evador, wants to know where we can meet to discuss.”
Garrett pulled out his phone and placed a call.
“Auden,” he said. “Since you’re the only one with an active duty job right now, run this man’s name and tell me who he is.”
He relayed the information, and I had to stop myself from reaching for the phone so I could hear Auden’s voice more clearly.
“Yeah, she got ’em back. They’re positive it’s her now,” he said.
Garrett’s eyes came to me, and I watched him still before saying, “I’ll keep an eye on her, I promise. Won’t let her out of my sight. The police station? Yes. That works for me. We’ll probably be up there in about thirty minutes, since I’m guessing this special agent’s already in town. Or at least in the area.”
The phone rang, and instead of answering it myself, I handed it off to Garrett. “I gotta go. I’ll call you back with details.”
He hung up with Auden only to answer the special agent—who might I add had a private number.
“Hello?” Garrett answered.
Instead of listening to his conversation, I went back to the bedroom to brush my teeth, brush my hair, and get dressed more fully.
When I was done, Garrett had his keys in his hand and was waiting for me at the door.
“I was right,” he said as he saw me. “He’s in town. But he’s a bit farther away than I expected, so we’ll go by the donut place and grab subpar donuts.”
I laughed out loud, covering my mouth with my hand as it became a little too over the top.
“When do you think you’ll be able to open again?” he asked.
“Soon,” I said. “Since all I really needed were ingredients, and Chief Kurosaka was able to push my business operating permit through with the city of Sunnyvale, all I’m really waiting for is getting set up and the health inspection.”
“Which you’ll pass easily,” he chuckled. “One thing your kidnapper did for you was force you to be a clean queen.”
Wasn’t that the truth.
When we got to the police station, and I had more than a few glaze flakes in my lap, I started to get nervous.
“There’s nothing they can really do that you don’t want them to do,” he pointed out. “He’s going to give you all the information he has, then he’s going to let your family know.”
My family.
That was so weird to hear.
Once upon a time, all I’d had was Dorsey.
Now, I had four other siblings and a grandmother who was about to be a hundred years old.
This was going to be great… right?
Just because I loved you at one point doesn’t mean I will always love you. Or whatever Whitney Houston said.
—Text from Auden to Atlas
AUDEN
Work was surprisingly great.
The change of pace from DPD to SPD was like going from the night shift to the day shift.
The crazy just wasn’t the same.
It was like going from the oppressive heat of Texas to the clean mountain air of Montana.
One place you were sweating your soul out, and the other you were finding out how it feels to breathe again.
I hadn’t realized how bad my attitude was every day when I went to work for Dallas PD. I hadn’t realized just how exhausting it was to be one hundred percent sick of people at the end of a shift. I hadn’t realized just how fucking nuts the people of Dallas were.
Until now.
“How did you like your first day?” my trainer—who had less on the job experience than me—asked.
Cable McMahon was a thirty-something-year-old, five-year veteran of the Sunnyvale Police Department. He’d been born and raised here, though he’d taken a ten-year stint in the Navy before settling back down again.
I liked him a lot, and I would definitely count him as a man to be respected.
“Other than the phone call saying my girl was heading to the police station, it went great,” I admitted.
“She’s in good hands there. Brooks is one of the best men I know,” he offered. “And he said he wouldn’t leave her side.”
He had said that.
That was four hours ago, and he’d given me regular updates on the situation.
I nodded, his words not making me feel much better.
When we arrived back at the station and made it inside, my gaze went straight to the conference room where Athena, my mom, Dad, Garrett, Chief Brooks, and the special agent, Jefferson Evador, were located.